Parliament met on the 5th of February, 1884. The Queen’s Speech admitted that the unexpected success of the Mahdi in the Soudan had delayed the evacuation of Cairo and the reduction of the British army of occupation. It also referred to the steps that had been taken to relieve Khartoum by the despatch of General Gordon--accompanied by Colonel Stewart--to that doomed city. An imposing programme of domestic legislation was put forward. There was to be a Reform Bill, a Bill to improve the government of London, and legislation was promised dealing with shipping, railways, the government of Scotland, education, Sunday Closing in Ireland, and intermediate education in Wales. The Egyptian Policy of the Government was naturally taken as the point for attack by the Opposition in the House of Lords and in the House of Commons. The position of England in Egypt was now so peculiar and embarrassing that any policy open to the Government was open to objection. So far as the interests of the English and Egyptian people were concerned, the best thing that could have been done for them would have been to render the frontier at Wady Halfa impregnable, to forbid any further interference with the Soudan, and to leave the Egyptian garrisons and colonies there to make the best terms they could with the Mahdi. This would not have been a noble or heroic, but it would have been a sensible course, and it would have prevented the perfectly useless expenditure of precious blood and treasure. On the other hand, only a Minister unselfish enough to brave the obloquy which would be cast on him by his rivals for adopting a sordid policy in the interests of his country, could venture on such a policy. It would have been possible to a Bismarck, who can boast that he will never break the bones of a Pomeranian grenadier for the sake of the Eastern Question. It was not possible to Mr. Gladstone, some of whose colleagues were already in a bellicose mood. Assuredly, too, it would in 1884 have been unpopular with the electors. In foreign complications, involving the issues of peace or war, their “Affections are A sick man’s appetite, who desires most that Which would increase his evil.”